Adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs)

Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOAs) share many common traits as a result of growing up with an addicted parent, in a household that was primarily focused on managing the alcoholic, or on 'keeping up appearances'.

I work with ACOA clients to identify and understand the ways their childhood with an alcoholic parent continues to affect them today. Fear of abandonment, and long-learned communications patterns often afflict relationships. Extreme sensitivity to criticism and difficulties with authority figures, as well as feelings of not fitting in, can affect your career.

ACOAs often have a hard time inhabiting their own experience, so we'll work on issues of identity, and uncovering who you really are. We'll work on authentic, appropriate self expression and boundaries. And we'll look at how you can be more truly yourself in solitude and in relationship.

Together we'll look back into the past, and work on issues in real-time in the present, in order to unlock the structures that are limiting the expression of who you truly are. There's grief work involved here, but there is also joy, and growing self confidence.

Here is a screening quiz for ACOA people. It's not the last word, but it might be helpful.

Rachael Vaughan MA, MFT # 50730: Depth Psychotherapy and EMDR in San Francisco and Marin, for individuals and couples, in English and French